A Glimmer Of Hope
by letitbeme
Summary: (Season 3 spoilers) After a big fight with Joyce, El falls asleep and...something extraordinary happens.


I'm gonna go ahead and disappoint you know, this is a one-shot. I think I'm a decent enough writer, but I can't think of any kind of follow-up to this. You want more? Write your own follow-up, I'm not being a jerk here, get creative, I want to see what you come up with.

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El stared intently as she could at the pop can sitting in front of her, she tried everything, she channeled every bad and angry moment she could but the can would not move. El eventually reached her breaking point and knocked the stupid piece of tin aside with a loud, frustrated scream.

"El, honey, what's wrong?" Joyce asked running into El's room.

El looked up at her with tears going down her cheeks, "I don't think my powers are ever coming back."

Joyce sat down by her daughter and took her hand, "Oh, sweetie, even if they don't come back, you've learned to live without them. That doesn't change the person you are."

El was still angry and couldn't hold it back anymore, "It's not just my powers, Mom! It's everything! I hate this tiny apartment! I hate my school! I hate this town! I hate not seeing my friends! I hate not seeing Mike! Will and Jonathan hate all of it too, and I know you feel the same way, the walls are thin and I hear you crying yourself to sleep at night!" she screamed with even more tears going down.

Joyce always wanted to be caring and understanding with the girl she took in as her daughter, but moments like this were making it really difficult, "Yes, El, I hate it here too. But, we made a choice and we have to stick with it" she said choking on her own tears.

Still too angry to think straight, El started screaming back, "No, Mom! YOU made the choice! You just took the rest of us with you! I hate you, Joyce! I should have stayed in Hawkins and let you leave!" and with that, El fell onto her pillow crying her eyes out.

Joyce was too emotional for a rebuttal and stormed out, slamming the door before curling up against the wall and crying her own eyes out.

Eventually, El wore herself out from the tears and fell asleep. While asleep, she felt her mind drifting, her mind's eye eventually settling on something, she wasn't sure but, it looked like Hopper. It was in a dark cold-feeling room and then a door opened and light poured into the room, it was Hopper! He didn't look good, he looked like Steve did that day at the mall with bruises all over his face and his hair and beard had grown out a lot. El heard someone saying something she couldn't understand and Hopper just said, "Hello, boys."

El jolted awake, it was darker and later at night now, but she knew she had to tell Joyce what she saw.

"Mom! Mom!" she yelled running into Joyce's room.

Joyce quickly turned on the light and wearily said "What's wrong, Honey?"

"I saw him! I saw Hop! He's alive!" El yelled excitedly.

Joyce had a bad feeling about this but decided to humor her, "Sweetie, where did you see him?"

"I was sleeping and I somehow entered the void and I saw him! He didn't look good but I saw him!"

Joyce thought this would happen, she was about to answer El but she was interrupted.

"What's all the noise?" Joyce looked over and saw Will and Jonathan standing in the doorway.

"El had a dream where she saw Hop, go back to sleep, guys."

El interrupted her, "No, Mom, It wasn't a dream! Having a dream and being in the void feel different to me, trust me, I know this was the void! I saw Hopper, he's alive!" she yelled for the third time.

"What did it look like, El?" Jonathan asked, sitting down and deciding to hear her out.

"It was really dark, I could barely see him, it almost looked like a cell or something. Then, the door opened and light came in, he looked like Steve did, with big bruises all over his face and some people were saying something funny to him, I couldn't understand them."

"Did it sound like what the bad men at the mall were saying?"

"I think so."

Jonathan looked at his mother and gestured for her to follow him, they both went over and stood by the door, Will had already gone in and was standing by El.

Jonathan started to whisper to Joyce, "Mom, what if she's right? I mean, she would know if it was in the void or not. What if he actually is alive?"

Joyce was trying to look for reason, "Jonathan, she's still just upset from the move," Joyce didn't notice Jonathan turning to look at something else.

"And she's still upset over losing him,"

"Mom?"

"We got into a big fight earlier and she probably wasn't thinking straight,"

"Mom?"

"I think it would be better if we all went back to sleep,"

"Mom!" Jonathan yelled loud enough to get her to look at him and see what he was looking at.

She looked over and saw El and Will standing by her nightstand and her glass of water shaking before falling over before she saw El holding her hand towards the glass and turning back with blood coming out of her nose.

Joyce and Jonathan walked over both wide-eyed to match Will and El's reactions.

"El? Did you make my water glass fall over?" Joyce asked in shock.

"Yeah, I did." El answered just as shocked.

Will finally spoke up, "Then does that mean...?" he had no idea how to finish that question.

Joyce sat back down on the bed trying to decide what to think before forming a big smile on her face.

"We gotta call Dr. Owens..."

"Mom?" Jonathan asked.

"Hop's alive." Joyce said in a whisper.

In a second, the room was filled with cheers and hollers.

Jonathan picked up both El and Will in crushing hugs, all three of them screaming, "He's alive! Hopper's alive!"

Joyce started running out to the phone and yelled in happiness, "He's being held prisoner over in Russia, but he's alive!"


End file.
